Fleeing War and Peril: Pregnant Yemeni Refugees Brave the Red Sea to Give Birth in Djibouti

Pregnant women only days from delivering have fled the fighting on Yemen 's west coast, crossed the Red Sea in overcrowded boats, and arrived at a refugee camp in Djibouti, driven by desperation and fear. After arriving in the towns of Obock, Khor Angar, Moulhoule or Godoria, some of them gave birth in the country. Most of the 3,100 Yemeni refugees are women and children, Unicef's representative in Djibouti, Ramatou Toure, told The National . “This means we are dealing with the most vulnerable part of the population,” Ms Toure said.

She noted that the movement of refugees to Djibouti may be the biggest from Yemen since the civil war began in 2014. “This was a surprise, it took us by storm,” she said. “First it was small numbers, around 50 a day. Then 1,000 people crossed on September 13,” she said, marking two days after the Houthis captured the entire west coast in an offensive that gave them unprecedented access to the Red Sea .

Yemeni refugees arrive in Djibouti by boat, exhausted and dehydrated. They are immediately given food and water, but sometimes their needs are more complicated. Before the latest escalation, an estimated 2.2 million Yemeni children under the age of five were acutely malnourished, meaning many require urgent medical assistance upon reaching Djibouti. Some mothers have to make a painful choice between taking one child to the hospital and leaving three behind, or staying in the camp with all four, Ms Toure said. To manage these situations, Unicef provides staff to ensure children are cared for when mothers are unable to do so.

According to aid groups, the sheer number of displaced people has forced some to sleep in the open and led to scuffles over water and other provisions. Yemen is no stranger to mass displacement, with war having plagued the country since at least 2014, when the Houthis took over the capital Sanaa and a Saudi-led coalition intervened on behalf of the government.

There were already four million internally displaced people before the latest fighting. Continuing clashes between the Iran-backed rebels and anti-Houthi forces have caused an additional 100,000 people to flee their homes in Yemen. In Taiz alone, on the west coast, 94,000 people have fled the fighting, marking a 135 per cent increase in displacement since September 8, according to the latest UN figures.

While the government has been leading the humanitarian response alongside UN agencies and international NGOs, the system will soon struggle to keep up. Unicef has launched an appeal for $2.7 million to meet imminent needs over the next three months as they plan for 10,000 people in the coming months, amid a chronically underfunded crisis.